This is why I'm donating to The Contrarian, Meidas, Aaron Parnas, the Associated Press news site, the Guardian newspaper, PBS, and NPR. I also subscribe to the online NYT. And I dropped Wapo. That's money I can donate instead to legitimate news sources listed above. I suggest watching the BBC News channel on cable and of course PBS News on cable or via their site.
I am doing much the same. I am actually paying for more Independent Media than I can consume, so I rotate through them a week at a time to make sure I get a variety of perspectives. But I always start my day with Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, The Contrarian, and Aaron Parnas.
Keep an eye to Dan Rather and Heather Cox Richardson too, if you get the chance. There is a lot of good information out there, it just isn't packaged as conveniently in one place as it used to be.
In business, we have Amazon - certainly convenient, but not always the best price or the bes offering of goods. As the old saying goes in both cases, shop around.
Amazon (ie Bezos) has destroyed many small businesses in America. Do your research, & weep. Then get angry - & determined. Leaving Amazon is very easy & satisfying!
I agree, but at least Walmart remains somewhat competitive, I think because it’s bricks & mortar. Amazon, which started out so great as I recall, a real possibility for shoppers like me who couldn’t afford the big department store prices, lost its way due to greed. Maybe that’s the way of the world?
Walmart remains competative to a point. If a manufacturer won't build a product to Walmart's price point, they don't get on the shelves. Makers are "strongly encouraged" to take the deal offered them to get their merchandise exposure and shelf space. Then there are the wages that Walmart 'associates' don't get paid and the hoops that they have to jump through to keep the jobs. Even with a brick & mortar presence, they aren't that good. Amazon markets for third parties, so they have to get their markup. Those third party sellers sometimes offer better prices than Amazon.
I like your comment even though I don't like Paul Krugman anymore. He pushes growth as the key to economic health. We need more imaginative thinking on economics.
PS: I should have said I don't like Krugman's thinking on economics, no dislike for him as a person.
He was cutting-edge once and yes has made a contribution. But at some point we need our experts to take a new look at things and say, Something different is needed.
I agree - the good information and perspective outweigh any “outdated” concepts. Plus, one should read multiple sources and perspectives. The “all or nothing” attitude has not helped us in any way, especially elections.
Economists have been focused on growth for as long as there have been economists. The reason is that there has been economically relevant growth in either resources or technology for thousands of years. Malthus is correct in principle. The analysis of system dynamics can easily accommodate stasis. Economists will still have a job, but their focus will change as needed. The analysis with stasis is easier than with unbounded growth. We haven't encountered a hard stop limit yet, although those who predict hitting walls serve a useful function of providing early warnings.
For example, Nash's Theorem still applies in expanding universe. The universe is still a closed system (it includes its boundary) even though it is expanding. In fluid mechanics, the continuity, momentum and energy equations easily accommodate a source functions. (Some source functions can induce chaos though.)
Your comment is...in the first instance confusing! but then challenging to one like me for whom physics is a stranger (despite having a father who was a physicist).I had to google a few terms, SC, but I think I get at least part of your gist. (at least I think I might) Growth seems to offer unlimited possibilities but now it doesn't because as populations grow, we approach the limits of growth. (How many houses can fit in a town, e.g.) Economics still has a role even when we're in a world of limited resources. Maybe a more important role. Maybe economists will need to take morality more into consideration when they develop models and algorithms .
This is a good excuse to have a fun conversation with your father. Wikipedia is a good reference for all the techie terms I used. As for good communicators on these topics, I recommend Paul Krugman and Robert Reich in addition to Inside Climate News.
Thanks, SC. Sadly my father has gone to the next dimension. I tried to look for a Physics for Dummies (those Dummies books were very helpful for many things. I do read Reich, and Krugman too at times, will check out Climate News.
There are people writing about economics in a different way. Kay Raworth was the first I read. But there is Tim Jackson, whom I haven't read yet, and a number of others. We are trashing the planet thanks to our growth-based thinking. Maybe its just all a part of human history; when we ruin this planet we'll be forced to explore other worlds, just as the Europeans of the 14th and 15th centuries did. Maybe it's progress but right now growth per se doesn't look like progress.
It is not - but to limit growth we need several things to fall in place: essentially free basic food, medical care, housing, education. We would also have to limit personal wealth accumulation beyond a certain predetermined level. And we would have to institute population control, and no paradigm I can think of is likely to work.
Yes. And a new economic model would, as you said, call for limiting personal wealth accumulation and personal consumption--something that would probably benefit each of us personally :) , and the planet. But these would be hard to sell, for sure.
Glad you mentioned the planet. It strikes me more and more frequently that this quibbling over national politics and international boundaries will become completely irrelevant.
In 1980 Kirkpatrick Sale wrote Human Scale on the topic of controlling growth…it is even more pertinent in 2026. “Growthmania” is rampant as houses go up all around me 4-5,000 square feet each…and they will be lived in <50% of the year…
I have read that in Venice, wealthy people buy an apartment that they might use once or twice a year. The result it there is no income from residents to butchers, fish mongers, bakeries and cheese stores when their customers live elsewhere.
Maybe you've seen the genius 21-minute video, The Story of Stuff, by Annie Leonard. It's a great way to get people thinking about ...our Stuff! It's up there with George Carlin's routine on the same subject.
Yes I've done the same. But please don't spend money for a NYT subscription. The NYT was one of the news outlets most responsible for normalizing the current president when he was a candidate in 2015.
Now you can read almost everything without being a subscriber, usually can also comment. The articles that are still behind a paywall usually are freed up after a day or so.
I was getting close to canceling my subscription to the times but it seems to me they have taken a modest turn to the left in the last few months. Better late than never.
I've subscribed to The Contrarian, Meidas, Aaron Parnas, Dworkin, and The Bulwark (paid) and unpaid for The Guardian. I've kept my online NY Times subscription. (I've kept WaPo mostly since it's our local paper, but if it weren't, I'd be done.) I read Heather Cox Richardson's daily letter on FB to start the day. (I'll admit I can't read all the stuff I subscribe to.
Senator Tammy Duckworth wrote among other paragraphs that
“He (meaning Donald Trump) owes it to the American people he promised he would always put first to attempt to justify before Congress how this illegal war will serve their interests. And the Senate must immediately come back to Washington to vote on Tim Kaine’s War Powers Resolution.”
🚩She has included the following place anyone can sign to call the Senate back to vote. Here it is:
SIGN ON: CALL THE SENATE BACK TO VOTE NO ON WAR WITH IRAN
Add your name to demand that Senate Republicans call us back to vote on Tim Kaine’s War Powers Resolution.
If there was ever a time for Republicans to find their spines, it’s now. The Senate must immediately vote on Senator Kaine’s War Powers Resolution to block this illegal military campaign.
This proposed merger from hell is yet another reason to be thankful for the rise of independent media like The Contrarian. Personally, I haven't watched network or cable news in a couple of years, and yet I'm better informed now than I ever was. That's because places like substack offer access to many voices and points of view without corporate overlord filters.
Thanks once again to Jen Rubin and Norm Eisen for this wonderful news outlet!
“One family is about to control CBS, CNN, HBO, and TikTok. They’ll buy WBD with $24 billion in money from the Saudis, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi. To win over Trump, they canceled Colbert, blocked a CECOT investigation, and blocked [James] Talarico. Much more will follow. Block this rotten deal.”
Thank you, Ms. Rubin, for redirecting our attention to something even more important than Trump's latest foray into Epstein distraction.
Back in the day (i.e. Viet Nam war protests, civil rights efforts, etc.) people talked about and tried to educate themselves about the 'interlocking directorates' that controlled US business. Then came the multinationals. Now I guess it's the cyber-giants.
Thank you, Jennifer. It depresses me to think just how much corruption there is in this country as a result of the current administration. Money is such a powerful mistress.
How many more American soldiers must die before Trump’s distraction strategy collapses to highlight the DOJ’s requirement to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, that was overwhelmingly passed by Congress and signed by Donald Trump on November 19, 2025, which orders the Attorney General to release all DOJ records relating to the Epstein investigations and prosecutions, including the 5,300 documents on which Trump’s name appears approximately 38,000 times?
IMPEACHMENT & CONVICTION is the only solution. Even if this media sale is blocked the crimes will continue until the WH Monster and other MAGA Monsters waiting in line are put down. Until that happens it will be continuous whack a mole at best.
Here's hoping that the poor and dangerous decisions of this administration will start to constrain more and more of these obvious mergers and watered down reporting. Already there are significantly less people getting their news from the mainstream. Substack is a wonderful source and needs to be shared more and more.
The problem with boycotting advertisers on one network is that these same advertisers hawk their products and services on all the networks. They don’t discriminate among customers. Better that viewers boycott the network itself. For instance, stop watching right wing controlled news, including CNN now that it is being overrun, and instead watch MS NOW.
Judy W, MS Now is my go to presently if I feel I need a quick check. Dropped both Wash Post & NY Times in favor of The Guardian, which I support. Of course I support and almost exclusively watch PBS. It must be bye bye to CBS now. How can Barri Weiss live with herself? Despicable. Worse.
I’ll call the state attorney general in MA this morning. And my Governor…
Over and over: ‘Winners are not people who never fail, but people who never quit’.
Steve, I do subscribe to the BBC news for many reasons, including their more esoteric stories. What a delight.
But they call CBS their affiliate or partner in the US. I am not sure how they phrase it or what that means overall. Maybe someone can explain the implications of that.
And... off topic a bit... but I can imagine DJT wispering in Bezos ear that he would love to see the Washington Post disappear. That seems the read story rather then the newspaper was losing money. Especially after the movie deal they made for Melania. The decision to lay off staff had nothing to do with money and everything to do with making Pinnochio happy.
Ever since the CBS affiliate in St. Louis moved their tower and went digital over-the-air, reception in this area of Illinois has been spotty to not at all. They were our only choice of availability. Now there's not any good reason to try to get them back.
The law? Guardrails? Any suggestion of Trumpian propaganda or corruption is obviously seditious fake news. Timothy Snyder: Why attack Iran? Trump & Co authoritarianism & corruption." Given the stupefyingly overt corruption of the Trump administration, one must ask whether the US armed forces are now being used on a per-hire basis...war provides the opportunity to see the core of the absurdity and the destruction that is being offered to us." Trumpian propaganda must be believed? https://snyder.substack.com/p/why-attack-iran?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
On Saturday, I insisted we tune in to BBC and DW--no US stations, especially since the US media have gutted their foreign bureaus. When in doubt, go to BBC or DW.
This is why I'm donating to The Contrarian, Meidas, Aaron Parnas, the Associated Press news site, the Guardian newspaper, PBS, and NPR. I also subscribe to the online NYT. And I dropped Wapo. That's money I can donate instead to legitimate news sources listed above. I suggest watching the BBC News channel on cable and of course PBS News on cable or via their site.
I am doing much the same. I am actually paying for more Independent Media than I can consume, so I rotate through them a week at a time to make sure I get a variety of perspectives. But I always start my day with Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, The Contrarian, and Aaron Parnas.
Keep an eye to Dan Rather and Heather Cox Richardson too, if you get the chance. There is a lot of good information out there, it just isn't packaged as conveniently in one place as it used to be.
In business, we have Amazon - certainly convenient, but not always the best price or the bes offering of goods. As the old saying goes in both cases, shop around.
Amazon (ie Bezos) has destroyed many small businesses in America. Do your research, & weep. Then get angry - & determined. Leaving Amazon is very easy & satisfying!
Walmart took an axe to small businesses before Amazon. Both have changed the choices scene.
I agree, but at least Walmart remains somewhat competitive, I think because it’s bricks & mortar. Amazon, which started out so great as I recall, a real possibility for shoppers like me who couldn’t afford the big department store prices, lost its way due to greed. Maybe that’s the way of the world?
But we gotta fight it where we can…
fraid so greed it is
Walmart remains competative to a point. If a manufacturer won't build a product to Walmart's price point, they don't get on the shelves. Makers are "strongly encouraged" to take the deal offered them to get their merchandise exposure and shelf space. Then there are the wages that Walmart 'associates' don't get paid and the hoops that they have to jump through to keep the jobs. Even with a brick & mortar presence, they aren't that good. Amazon markets for third parties, so they have to get their markup. Those third party sellers sometimes offer better prices than Amazon.
I like your comment even though I don't like Paul Krugman anymore. He pushes growth as the key to economic health. We need more imaginative thinking on economics.
PS: I should have said I don't like Krugman's thinking on economics, no dislike for him as a person.
I have been filing Krugman for 20 years now, the good that he does far out weighs the bad.
He was cutting-edge once and yes has made a contribution. But at some point we need our experts to take a new look at things and say, Something different is needed.
I agree - the good information and perspective outweigh any “outdated” concepts. Plus, one should read multiple sources and perspectives. The “all or nothing” attitude has not helped us in any way, especially elections.
Economists have been focused on growth for as long as there have been economists. The reason is that there has been economically relevant growth in either resources or technology for thousands of years. Malthus is correct in principle. The analysis of system dynamics can easily accommodate stasis. Economists will still have a job, but their focus will change as needed. The analysis with stasis is easier than with unbounded growth. We haven't encountered a hard stop limit yet, although those who predict hitting walls serve a useful function of providing early warnings.
For example, Nash's Theorem still applies in expanding universe. The universe is still a closed system (it includes its boundary) even though it is expanding. In fluid mechanics, the continuity, momentum and energy equations easily accommodate a source functions. (Some source functions can induce chaos though.)
Your comment is...in the first instance confusing! but then challenging to one like me for whom physics is a stranger (despite having a father who was a physicist).I had to google a few terms, SC, but I think I get at least part of your gist. (at least I think I might) Growth seems to offer unlimited possibilities but now it doesn't because as populations grow, we approach the limits of growth. (How many houses can fit in a town, e.g.) Economics still has a role even when we're in a world of limited resources. Maybe a more important role. Maybe economists will need to take morality more into consideration when they develop models and algorithms .
This is a good excuse to have a fun conversation with your father. Wikipedia is a good reference for all the techie terms I used. As for good communicators on these topics, I recommend Paul Krugman and Robert Reich in addition to Inside Climate News.
Thanks, SC. Sadly my father has gone to the next dimension. I tried to look for a Physics for Dummies (those Dummies books were very helpful for many things. I do read Reich, and Krugman too at times, will check out Climate News.
Perhaps, but what alternative do we have at present.
There are people writing about economics in a different way. Kay Raworth was the first I read. But there is Tim Jackson, whom I haven't read yet, and a number of others. We are trashing the planet thanks to our growth-based thinking. Maybe its just all a part of human history; when we ruin this planet we'll be forced to explore other worlds, just as the Europeans of the 14th and 15th centuries did. Maybe it's progress but right now growth per se doesn't look like progress.
It is not - but to limit growth we need several things to fall in place: essentially free basic food, medical care, housing, education. We would also have to limit personal wealth accumulation beyond a certain predetermined level. And we would have to institute population control, and no paradigm I can think of is likely to work.
Yes. And a new economic model would, as you said, call for limiting personal wealth accumulation and personal consumption--something that would probably benefit each of us personally :) , and the planet. But these would be hard to sell, for sure.
Glad you mentioned the planet. It strikes me more and more frequently that this quibbling over national politics and international boundaries will become completely irrelevant.
Exactly. As someone said/sang, "What's it all about, ALfie?"
In 1980 Kirkpatrick Sale wrote Human Scale on the topic of controlling growth…it is even more pertinent in 2026. “Growthmania” is rampant as houses go up all around me 4-5,000 square feet each…and they will be lived in <50% of the year…
I have read that in Venice, wealthy people buy an apartment that they might use once or twice a year. The result it there is no income from residents to butchers, fish mongers, bakeries and cheese stores when their customers live elsewhere.
Maybe you've seen the genius 21-minute video, The Story of Stuff, by Annie Leonard. It's a great way to get people thinking about ...our Stuff! It's up there with George Carlin's routine on the same subject.
I also watch Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNOW (AKA MSNBC. The whole MSNOW story is also part of the oligarchical media takeover.)
Yes I've done the same. But please don't spend money for a NYT subscription. The NYT was one of the news outlets most responsible for normalizing the current president when he was a candidate in 2015.
Now you can read almost everything without being a subscriber, usually can also comment. The articles that are still behind a paywall usually are freed up after a day or so.
I was getting close to canceling my subscription to the times but it seems to me they have taken a modest turn to the left in the last few months. Better late than never.
They probably have because I suspect they've lost subscribers, probably not to the extent WaPo did.
Agreed. And probably grew some cajones
I feel the same way and that’s why I contribute to those same people!
More suggestions, especially if you want news about the Middle East not varnished by US/Israeli talking points and assumptions:
Drop Site News
Zeteo
Democracy Now!
The Intercept
Right with you on all of your choices - mine too.
I've subscribed to The Contrarian, Meidas, Aaron Parnas, Dworkin, and The Bulwark (paid) and unpaid for The Guardian. I've kept my online NY Times subscription. (I've kept WaPo mostly since it's our local paper, but if it weren't, I'd be done.) I read Heather Cox Richardson's daily letter on FB to start the day. (I'll admit I can't read all the stuff I subscribe to.
Please share this urgent petition.
Senator Tammy Duckworth wrote among other paragraphs that
“He (meaning Donald Trump) owes it to the American people he promised he would always put first to attempt to justify before Congress how this illegal war will serve their interests. And the Senate must immediately come back to Washington to vote on Tim Kaine’s War Powers Resolution.”
🚩She has included the following place anyone can sign to call the Senate back to vote. Here it is:
SIGN ON: CALL THE SENATE BACK TO VOTE NO ON WAR WITH IRAN
Add your name to demand that Senate Republicans call us back to vote on Tim Kaine’s War Powers Resolution.
If there was ever a time for Republicans to find their spines, it’s now. The Senate must immediately vote on Senator Kaine’s War Powers Resolution to block this illegal military campaign.
ADD YOUR NAME
FIRST NAME
LAST NAME
EMAIL ADDRESS
*
ZIP CODE
*
MOBILE PHONE
SUBMIT
Really good article. Control of the media is one of the first steps an authoritarian regime takes.
Exactly what the 2025 Gang had in mind.
This proposed merger from hell is yet another reason to be thankful for the rise of independent media like The Contrarian. Personally, I haven't watched network or cable news in a couple of years, and yet I'm better informed now than I ever was. That's because places like substack offer access to many voices and points of view without corporate overlord filters.
Thanks once again to Jen Rubin and Norm Eisen for this wonderful news outlet!
I like Paul Krugman's name of the conflict. Instead of "Epic Fury" he's calling it the war of "Masculine Insecurity."
Operation Epstein Failure.
I like that.
I’d been thinking DT started a war because “war is manly” and it makes him “feel like a man” (Bigly)
“One family is about to control CBS, CNN, HBO, and TikTok. They’ll buy WBD with $24 billion in money from the Saudis, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi. To win over Trump, they canceled Colbert, blocked a CECOT investigation, and blocked [James] Talarico. Much more will follow. Block this rotten deal.”
Thank you, Ms. Rubin, for redirecting our attention to something even more important than Trump's latest foray into Epstein distraction.
Back in the day (i.e. Viet Nam war protests, civil rights efforts, etc.) people talked about and tried to educate themselves about the 'interlocking directorates' that controlled US business. Then came the multinationals. Now I guess it's the cyber-giants.
Call it the Trump/Epstein War.
That is why independent writers on Substack and the Bulwark are SO important.
And should that consolidation happen, independent news organizations such as 'The Contratrian' will be more important than ever!
Why not take over a major network/newspaper?
Someone needs to engineer a hostile takeover of Faux Noise and change the format dramatically. A name change would be in order too.
I'll chip in
Dear Daniel Solomon,
The idea of going to a network or newspaper format is interesting, but I already read
all most of my news online. [The exception is a local weekly newspaper.] Becoming
more formalized will take time and money they don't need to spend.
Thank you, Jennifer. It depresses me to think just how much corruption there is in this country as a result of the current administration. Money is such a powerful mistress.
Greed and power come first. Money follows.
I hope the AGs stop the merger. We need some kind of governance while we have that piggy and his homunculii devouring DC.
HOW MANY MORE AMERICAN SOLDIERS MUST DIE?
How many more American soldiers must die before Trump’s distraction strategy collapses to highlight the DOJ’s requirement to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, that was overwhelmingly passed by Congress and signed by Donald Trump on November 19, 2025, which orders the Attorney General to release all DOJ records relating to the Epstein investigations and prosecutions, including the 5,300 documents on which Trump’s name appears approximately 38,000 times?
IMPEACHMENT & CONVICTION is the only solution. Even if this media sale is blocked the crimes will continue until the WH Monster and other MAGA Monsters waiting in line are put down. Until that happens it will be continuous whack a mole at best.
Here's hoping that the poor and dangerous decisions of this administration will start to constrain more and more of these obvious mergers and watered down reporting. Already there are significantly less people getting their news from the mainstream. Substack is a wonderful source and needs to be shared more and more.
Boycott all the advertisers on CBS News.
The problem with boycotting advertisers on one network is that these same advertisers hawk their products and services on all the networks. They don’t discriminate among customers. Better that viewers boycott the network itself. For instance, stop watching right wing controlled news, including CNN now that it is being overrun, and instead watch MS NOW.
Judy W, MS Now is my go to presently if I feel I need a quick check. Dropped both Wash Post & NY Times in favor of The Guardian, which I support. Of course I support and almost exclusively watch PBS. It must be bye bye to CBS now. How can Barri Weiss live with herself? Despicable. Worse.
I’ll call the state attorney general in MA this morning. And my Governor…
Over and over: ‘Winners are not people who never fail, but people who never quit’.
Arnold Schwartzenegger
You might consider adding the BBC news. Most PBS channels offer it, and it's available online too.
Steve, I do watch BBC news.
Esp @ 5:30 pm here pre 6:00 PBS news hour. Tops for me.
Thank you.
Same here!
Steve, I do subscribe to the BBC news for many reasons, including their more esoteric stories. What a delight.
But they call CBS their affiliate or partner in the US. I am not sure how they phrase it or what that means overall. Maybe someone can explain the implications of that.
And... off topic a bit... but I can imagine DJT wispering in Bezos ear that he would love to see the Washington Post disappear. That seems the read story rather then the newspaper was losing money. Especially after the movie deal they made for Melania. The decision to lay off staff had nothing to do with money and everything to do with making Pinnochio happy.
Ever since the CBS affiliate in St. Louis moved their tower and went digital over-the-air, reception in this area of Illinois has been spotty to not at all. They were our only choice of availability. Now there's not any good reason to try to get them back.
The law? Guardrails? Any suggestion of Trumpian propaganda or corruption is obviously seditious fake news. Timothy Snyder: Why attack Iran? Trump & Co authoritarianism & corruption." Given the stupefyingly overt corruption of the Trump administration, one must ask whether the US armed forces are now being used on a per-hire basis...war provides the opportunity to see the core of the absurdity and the destruction that is being offered to us." Trumpian propaganda must be believed? https://snyder.substack.com/p/why-attack-iran?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
On Saturday, I insisted we tune in to BBC and DW--no US stations, especially since the US media have gutted their foreign bureaus. When in doubt, go to BBC or DW.